Stuart Files Bill to Prevent Higher Education Institutions from Signing Trump Compact

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. – During veto session, state Rep. Katie Stuart, D-Edwardsville, filed a bill that would prevent any Illinois institutions of higher education from signing onto President Trump’s manipulative higher education compact.

“Our students deserve to receive an education that is free from political pressure,” Stuart said. “The Trump Administration is trying to control what happens on college campuses across the United States, and that is completely unacceptable. His compact is a direct threat to students’ and faculties’ educational and individual rights.”

On Oct. 1, President Trump released The Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education and announced that if schools signed onto it, they would receive preferential access to federal funds. While the compact was originally for nine specific universities, he has now opened it to all higher education institutions in the country. The compact includes measures to shut down departments that “punish, belittle” or “spark violence against conservative ideas,” limit international enrollment, and ban transgender students from using the bathroom and playing sports that match their gender identity. It is not clear what Trump will do if institutions refuse to agree to his compact.

Stuart’s House Bill 4164 would prohibit any public institution of higher education in Illinois from entering into President Trump’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education.

“My priority is ensuring that students in Illinois never have to worry about government oversight harming their education,” Stuart said. “The compact that President Trump is trying to get colleges to sign is not for the students’ benefits but for his administration’s agenda. That is not the way higher education is supposed to run, and that is not the way it is going to run here in Illinois.”

For more information, please contact repkatiestuart@gmail.com.